4th of July Weekend

When I first saw that the 4th of July was on Sunday this year I was a little disappointed. It turned out being great though because we got to draw out the celebration! On Saturday we had a bbq with Gustavo's mom, Juve, Yolanda, Shevin, and their boys. After eating we left Ella with Yolanda and Shevin and headed off to Stadium of Fire. I didn't bring my camera, but it was an awesome show. We love Carrie Underwood and she was just as incredible as we thought she would be.
The 4th was really low key. My sister Meg and her family got here Saturday night so on Sunday we went down to Provo to visit with them for a few hours after church. On Monday we headed down to Nephi for another bbq in the afternoon. Here is a picture of Ella and Gabe. I love that these two are so close in age. It is fun watching them grow up together.

Liz is always so good to get a group picture.

At around 3 o'clock we headed up to Provo for my family's annual 4th of July party where we swam, ate, visited, and played with family.

This year I was too busy enjoying the traditional water fight to get any pictures, but it was a blast like always. Ella just enjoyed walking all around. I think she loved swimming with the boys because she could see so many belly buttons.

It was a great weekend.

fathers

"Any man can be a father. It takes someone special to be a dad."

Ella is lucky to have such an incredible dad.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

I love summer

This morning as Ella woke me up (she makes a great alarm clock), I immediately started thinking about getting ready for work. I was so excited when I remembered it's summer... and then even more excited when I remembered that I'm not going back. Instead of going to work, Ella and I went running and then met Alysha and Makaylee over at the splash pad in Highland.

Ella loved eating their crackers. She is such a mooch.
It is so funny to see the difference in the girls' personalities. Makaylee was content to sit in the water and play with a single fountain while Ella just wanted to walk everywhere. She never stopped so I constantly had this view.

Once Ella noticed the vent where the water was recycling through she was determined to explore it. I was nervous to let her go over though because lots of big kids were playing in that area, but when the water stopped for 10 minutes all the kids left so I let her play.

Occasionally she let me see her cute face.

P.S. look at our house today...

I'm getting SO excited!

what a difference a day makes

our house

It's official...

We are building this floor plan

in this color scheme
on this corner lot with .35 acres.
This is what it looks like now.

Isn't it beautiful?

Our estimated closing date is July 12th.

HOORAY!

More great news: we found a renter for our townhome who seems awesome!

independent Ella

This whole toddler tantrum thing is going to take a lot out of me. I was really excited to take Ella swimming today with our friends. She loves water and I thought it would be great. I was a little worried considering her recent behavior and the fact that we haven't been to a pool since she started walking. We didn't even get into the pool before the tantrums began. This time I was hit in the nose (no blood thankfully). I try to keep her away from my face, buy I'm obviously new at this. The line was long and she didn't want to be held. She wanted to wander around, including in the parking lot. It wasn't long before she fell flat on her face which left her with a cut nose and scraped forehead. She was upset and still didn't want me to hold her.

Things got a little better when we entered the pool.
She still didn't want me to hold her hand- can we say miss independent? It wasn't long before she tripped and fell under the water. Of course I was right there and quickly grabbed her out of the water. After Ella started breathing normally and calmed down she was a little more willing to stay near me and even allowed me to touch her.
Unfortunately, things got worse before we left. As we walked around the lazy river some boys were playing around and one jumped in the air and as he landed his elbow smacked into Ella's head. I heard the contact and knew it must have really hurt. Right after she calmed down from the collision Ella was drenched by one of four buckets that spontaniously empty to soak people. Of course we walked under at the worst time; she was hysterical.

It is a good thing that a long with these terrible tantrums, Ella is also playing and joking around more. I love this crazy little girl more and more (who knew that was possible?)

fat lip

(a few hours after the incident so the swelling is down)
Guess who gave me a fat lip today? Yep, Ella. During the past two days she has decided to be very independent. Yesterday during church she was impossible. She wanted to be anywhere but with us doing everything we didn't want her to be doing. We haven't had this issue before and definitely not to this extreme degree. Today she screamed when I put her in the stroller (she wanted to push it), but once I started running she was fine. At the grocery store she was manageable at the beginning, but by the end she was done. She was screaming to get out so I picked her up thinking I'd hold her while we finished. That wasn't what she wanted. She started fighting to get down so I tried to put her back in the cart. She started kicking and flailing around. I distracted her for a minute and found a line (it was Walmart so the line was pretty long.) Once I got settled she got worse and worse. She was screaming and I felt all eyes on me. She wanted to run all over and wasn't willing to compromise. I wasn't about to let her run all over so I was trying to stay calm and whisper to her as she flung her head back into my mouth. I thought I was bleeding, but easily realized it was just swollen. I wanted to go home, but needed the groceries because I was supposed to bring dinner to my neighbor. I tried not to cry while somehow managing to get through checkout. What a nightmare.

p.s. Gustavo is gone again. He's been gone 9 weeks of the last 7 months.